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Falmouth City Council moves ahead with sewer and water fix

July 24, 2018 - 8:01amFalmouth1

By:

Ed Salerno, Reporter

As to the water rates, Councilwoman Hurst said, “Increases are necessary to simply cover the city’s cost of water and sewer treatment not to mention the constant breakdown of the badly aging systems in the city. Also, Falmouth has by far the lowest rates of all the surrounding cities.

Jeff Reynolds, Project Manager for HMB engineering, Stephanie King, Community Development Specialist, Northern Kentucky Area Development District (NKADD) and Bill Mitchell Director of Development for Pendleton County met with Falmouth City Council at a special called meeting on July 19, 2018. In an effort to move ahead with the necessary repairs to the city’s sewer and water systems, Reynolds requested that council approve payment for a preliminary engineering report. This report is a necessary first step in this long over due fix of the water and sewer issues in the city.

In presenting a price for this report Reynolds laid out several areas of concern, camera work, or detailed pictures of the interior of the pipes to determine their condition, low manhole covers, fixing existing water tanks, lining of pipes, new laterals or the connections to each business/home, to name a few.

The report would also include overall cost estimates, money sources such as Kentucky Infrastructure Authority (KIA), Community Development Block Grants (CDBG) and potential increases in the sewer and water rates. Reynolds said this report would cost the city $20,000 and was a required report to begin to apply for the block grants and loans needed to pay for fixing the systems.

Mitchell made the point that often the grant money and or loan money from KIA or CDBG could be used to payback this expense to council.

Reynolds also made a point of adding, “There is a problem with people running their downspouts from their homes and businesses into the sewer system. During heavy rain storms this creates an unnecessary excess of rain water to be treated by the water plant.”

Mayor Ron Stinson said, “There are in excess of 600 homes in the city that do this.